Environmental act by Coca Cola and Stockholm City
Coca Cola picked Maxibit to supply the portable marketing tools for this event. One reason was the fact that Maxibit is a member of UN Global Compact and the Swedish Reference Group for Social Responsibility.
Another was the quality and versitility of the Maxibit pop-up system: Maxibit Network.
Facts about the event:
138 952 Christmas lights was changed to LED-lights with 70 % better energy efficiancy
2010 is Stockholm the first European Environment Capital
Money was given to the Salvation Army’s Christmas campagne.
More: Intervju in Swedish
Thanks to UMG – United Media Group
Happy Holidays!
/Christian
Nordic Fairtrade Challenge
Today the organization Fairtrade made a record attempt by organizing the largest fair trade coffee break ever. It was set-up as a competition between the Nordic countries to gather as many people as possible in a coffee break with nothing but fair trade products. The goal was to spread the word of Fairtrade and to emphazise the importance of making conscious choices for the world as consumers. Of course the Maxibit staff joined in with a nice break with fair trade chocolate and typical Swedish gingerbread.
/Christian
Swedish Government, Reference Group for CSR
Today I have been in a meeting at the Swedish Government held by the Swedish CSR-ambassador of Foreign Affairs. The initiative for the reference group, called “Global Responsibility”, consists of companies approved by the UN Global Compact, official authorities, industry and labor organisations.
A very small group of business representatives are invited, mainly the top companies in the Swedish industry, and Maxibit Worldwide AB has been a proud and active part of the group since the start.
One topic of interest discussed was the upcoming new social responsibility standard for sustainable development: ISO 26000.
400 experts from 60 countries has been working for 3-4 years with the document that hopefully will set a new world standard and consensus for social responsibility work not only within corporations but in the whole global community.
The draft of this document is 100 pages and can be downloaded at www.iso.org/sr
Read it and find out if your business community holds the SR standards of the future.
/Christian
We do a lot of marketing material, sales tools, design tools and user material.
In order to get all this material out to you who market Maxibit or you who are a Maxibit user or an event designer we have started to upload the material to appropriate easy-to-find forums. So now designers can find all Maxibit products as models in Google SketchUp 3D Warehouse. And on Flickr you can search for Maxibit images. Maybe you need inspiration when designing with the product Maxibit Stage. Just go to Flickr and simply search for Maxibit Stage. Or you may need to answer a customer about what Maxibit does for the environment or why they should choose a pop-up from Maxibit. Go to Youtube and search for Maxibit environment or Maxibit pop-up.
Take a look!
/Christian
9 months has passed. Congrats! It became a LaunchPack!
I still have the taste of Champagne in my mouth. Oh boy what a great feeling when Sebastian pushed the launch button today 14:15. In the same second the Champagne corks were flying everywhere in the office! Just as I’m writing this I can here the phones starting to ring from all over the world. This is going to be soooooo gooooood!!!!!
/Christian
Just got the end user presentation of the LaunchPack. I think it looks pretty good. Take a look!
/Christian
Partner Education in the Stockholm archipelago
Here’s another post from Jean-Michel;
This week Maxibit Export team hade it´s third education sessions for its Partners this year. This three days session toke place in one of the 2 500 islands of the Stockholm Archipelago: Grinda.
Maxibit Partners who participated at this education was the staff from Maxibit Austria, our new Partners for the north of Spain and 3 persons from Maxibit Georgia.
This session was orientated on the Sales Strategy. During this 2 days session we have been working and exchanging experiences on a very concrete basis, practicing in workshops about how to adapt and design the needs to “surprise” or “interests ”our clients. We have been as well exchanged a bit of countries culture by cooking our diner together. It gave interesting result and point of view about for example how a cucumber could be prepared.
After this Education session, Maxibit will follow up and assist the present partners by generating documentations, graphic supports and key tools, to help them to adopt quickly there sales methods on this strategy. We thank all the present partners for their interests and engagement and we wish them good sales!
Ben & Jean-Michel
Maxibit Export Team
Are you interesting to know more about the Maxibit Education program? Please contact the Maxibit Export Team in Stockholm.
The WTCC tour was stopping in Spain in the most important area in Europe for the orange growing : Valencia.
Maxibit HQ was there represented by jean-Michel, and the new Maxibit Spanish partner was there to represented by is owner Augustin who took the opportunity to invite some prospects and some clients to combine business meeting and leisure moments. Together we assist and supply the Race Game company Simbin, the European leader in race games.
Maxibit was in charge of the stand and the beautiful Maxibit Stage print walls have build a perfect race atmosphere in the simulator and computer games tent. The 3 days event was busy on the race track and crowded under the race tent and even the pilots went to race and loved the simulators races.
What was the most interesting for me to see : even on the race car the environment we feel that lots of copany start to do it better: driving with Ethanol engines. The best was that the racing cars propelled by diesel engines was so quiet on the tour! But the quickest too!
By the way, have you try the free racing game: Volvo the Race? No… you should try it. Go to http://bit.ly/wWJkc
/Jean-Michel
Hundreds of Maxibit products on SketchUp 3D Warehouse
The students have now finished all Maxibit products on Google SketchUp 3D Warehouse.
They have also participated in the launch of Maxibit LaunchPack. They have made marketing material, creative 3D designs with the new Stage 2.0 and also been models in the shooting of these products. Thank you Robin, Emma, Lena, Olof and Michael! Have a great summer!
We finished of with a classy dinner with lots of oysters and other good sea food.
Go download the Maxibit products and get creative with SketchUp!
/Christian
As 1/10 teams Maxibit joins the Volvo The Game. Join in and share the fun. This is part of a join venture together with Simbins Green Racing tour throughout Europe during 2009. The first stop is the WTCC race in Valencia May 29,30,31. Join with us on site.
Download the free game: http://bit.ly/wWJkc
Copy/paste from Simbins press release:
Volvo – The Game from SimBin is being released today, May 26th, and features not only the very latest S60 Concept but also a blast from the past with some rare and iconic racing legends.
Just download the game and make your car selection among the historic beasts like the 240 Turbo Group A next to the very latest Volvo cars like the C30 and S60 Concept and test your driving skills on the two included real world circuits.
View the full press release: http://www.simbin.se/news.php?newsid=157
Read more at www.simbin.com
/Christian
Message from the warehouse
The yearly inventory of the warehouse in Stockholm takes place between the 1st and 3rd June. Unfortunaltley we are not able to ship any orders during this time.
We kindly ask for your patience. Please try to plan all your orders around these times.
For questions regarding this matter, please call or e-mail your Maxibit representative.
May 25th, 2009
I just got in my mail the annual report from UN Global Compact.
We take the UNGC-work seriously. We do so many things to make your products the most sustainable and ethical displays on the market – The Greener Choice.
There are only 800 companies in the world that qualifies to be part of UN Global Compact, and Maxibit is one of them. These issues should be central to any Premium Brand Companies with a long term business perspective. I consider our membership a key unique selling point.
Read what Maxibit did to contribute during 2008
Read more about the UN Global Compact work
The Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact
Christian Ahlberg
CEO, Maxibit Worldwide AB
Maxibit’s students – an inspiring variation
Since the beginning of April, Maxibit has given five Students from ‘MediaGymnasiet’ the opportunity to improve their skills and get an insight in the working life. During their nine week internship, the students will work within varying fields of media, all specific to their education. Each student is educated in graphic design, 3D modeling, web design and video.
This innovative project is of great benefit for both parties. The students get the chance to contribute to Maxibit’s strategy by working on specific projects with modern media. Maxibit benefits from their knowledge, ideas and new ways of thinking!
In addition, Maxibit has been looking to gain from the benefit of closer collaboration with international partners. Since March, Sebastian, the son of Maxibit’s Certified Partner in Austria, Gerhard Haselsteiner, has been an integral part of Maxibit in Stockholm. Sebastian will be living and working in Stockholm for a total of four months. As a student of Environmental System Sciences and Business Administration in Austria, he will be working with Maxibit’s Sustainability Policy, as well as on other innovative projects. We hope he will be able to gain an insight into what is done at the Maxibit head office, further understand Maxibit’s philosophy, and tighten the relationship between Sweden and Austria.
Thank you Gerhard for lending us your son – he is doing great things here!
/Christian
This week Maxibit contracted a new partner in Georgia. The company Geoland.
Tbilisi, the Capital is rich in history and architecture
Geoland´s CEO Zviad Beglarishvili discovered Maxibit on a trade show in year 2000.
“Georgian people are decided and patient and always wait to get the best time opportunity! Since I first met with Maxibit I was convinced that when the time will be right, I will import this portable marketing quality to Georgia.” – Zviad explains.
2009 Geoland decided that it was right time to start with Maxibit. Geoland have today 22 people with focus on design and service.
Jean-Michel visited Geoland this week and on Monday 15 March the contract was signed. The decision was easy to make for both parties since we share the same values in quality and customers. Geoland is launching Maxibit on the 2nd of April at the Tbilisi Tourism Exhibition Show. Geoland is already booking meetings with clients to present Maxibit.
We are confident that Geoland and Maxibit will soon be market leaders in Georgia.
Good luck to Zviad and his crew!
/Christian
Hardcopy has funkyfied their business and launches this week Maxibit Ireland. Ben is there during the 3-day start-up. The sales process is implemented, CRM, calling manuscripts, Needs Analysis and more. Only the first day 60 large customers was contacted by phone! Dublin based European head-quarters of International corporations. The vibe and energy is just fantastic. I’m sure Pat and his enthusiastic crew will rock things up pretty good on the green Island. Great stuff!
/Christian
Unloading a 40 footer in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Last week Key Account Manager Jean-Michel and Product Expert Jonas visited our esteemed new Maxibit partners in Riyadh. The company “Must Bee” was founded by Mustafa Hussein 3 years ago and has already one “hive” in Jeddah and one in Riyadh with a total of over 130 portable exhibition professionals. Their slogan is “buzz-making exhibitions”.
The purpose of the visit was to train, educate and kick-start the Maxibit venture on the Arabic peninsula.
Must-Bee signed the Certified Partner contract late autumn 2008 and this was the second visit, just in time for the first delivery, a 40 foot container filled with Maxibit showrooms and enough products for two starting warehouses.
We are proud to be part of this very inspiring team! Hamdullah!
Mustafa! I’m sure you will take the whole Arabic world by (sand)storm, inshallah!
/Christian
Great achievements come from brave people
The world economy is going through a phase of major financial crisis. Things taken for granted are questioned. People and companies find themselves in dead-ends and are forced to start walking new paths. Some things will remain the same and some will change forever.
And with global warming we see a convergence of crisis.
One thing is for sure – over consumption of low cost – low quality products and irresponsible use of resources will take a major blow, to the benefit of re-usable, hi-quality and sustainable values. I believe from the bottom of my hart that this crisis, if we play our cards right, can possibly be the best thing that happened to Maxibit in a long time.
We see already competition falling left and right and new customers are coming on board in an astonishing rate.
So what do we do? We invest heavily in future market share. We hire inspiring people. We develop new products.
The latest addition to the Maxibit staff is the ingenious product designer and engineer Stefan Gylleby. I think you’ll like his work.
Maxibit welcomes new Certified Partners
The first week of February, two companies from Estonia and Finland sent their sales staff on 2-day training to Maxibit HQ in Stockholm.
The attendees gave the education an average top rating between “Good” and “Excellent”. The two most appreciated parts of the course was 1) how to practically structure sales activities during a typical sales week and 2) a “game / roll play” where theory turned into practice.
Ben and Jean-Michel was praised for giving a great education. The two days ended with both companies signing Maxibit Certified Partner Contract.
Many thanks to the participating companies, especially Kaj and Risto for sending their sales staff on Maxibit training.
I thought I’d drop you a line or two about the progress of the Maxibit corporate social responsibility and sustainability programs. We’ve come a long way and we should be proud of the work so far – but we can do more.
We have had an internal conference with one of the most inspiring radical environmental activists from Norway, Frank Hugo Storelv.
We invited him to inspire us and yes, he did. Personally I realized the difference between “taking active interests in environmental issues” and actually “chaining yourself to a hazardous situation”.
Boy, I really think we should all get together and show the world that Maxibit leaders, customers and employees are really doing something. I am looking for a suitable project. If you have any suggestions please let me know.
In the meantime – together we can push the progress we’ve achieved. We are market leaders in sustainable marketing. Maxibit is simply the world’s best portable marketing choice™!
All the best,
Christian Ahlberg
CEO
Maxibit Worldwide AB